The Funny (and very Italian) story of Italian Minister of Colture

The good thing about Italian politics right now is that while in Germany there is talk of economic decadence and right-wing ascendancy, and in the UK there is talk of pension cuts and the repression of freedom of opinion, in Italy we can afford to fill the front pages of newspapers, especially those close to the left (i.e., almost all of them) with the love affairs of a minister otherwise unknown to most.

That is why today we are talking about the “Boccia Gate,” a story that seems straight out of a soap opera but instead has the Italian Ministry of Culture as its stage.

Imagine a minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, who not only has to manage the art and culture of an entire nation but also finds himself having to explain a love affair that has more twists and turns than a South American telenovela. And who is the lady in question? Maria Rosaria Boccia, a figure who has gone from being a mere acquaintance to becoming the centerpiece of a political case that has made many people smile and shake their heads.

How did the minister of culture come up with this explanation? The affair became public in late August, when Boccia learned that she would not be appointed “Adviser” to the minister for major events. Hell hath no fury like an irate woman, and Boccia began to put the truth of her relationship with the minister out in the open, forcing him to make a mea culpa.

The plot thickens when Sangiuliano, in an interview that has more pathos than a Fellini film, confesses to Tg1 that he had a romantic relationship with Boccia. But that’s not all, oh no! Our minister, with a drama that would make Shakespeare envious, submitted his resignation to Premier Meloni, who, however, rejected it with a gesture that seems to say, “Not so fast, my darling,” leaving him to stew in the public eye

And this is where the most ironic part comes in: Sangiuliano, with a mix of drama and comedy, tearfully apologizes to his wife, to Meloni, but, curiously, not to the Italians. Perhaps because he knows that we, as good viewers, enjoy the show without taking it too seriously? Or because he knows the love for melodrama of a part of the nation ?

But the real icing on the cake? Boccia gives an interview to the La Stampa daily, one of the fiercest against the Meloni government, in which she claims that the minister is being blackmailed by senior leaders of her ministry. A situation that would be serious if the minister were the minister of the Interior or Defense, but how to blackmail the minister of Culture? By revealing his grammatical errors?

Actually, from the point of view of crimes, the minister did nothing or almost nothing, and the whole thing boils down, at most, to a few airline tickets that were allegedly issued recklessly. Yet this story is heating up the Italian press, which is unable to talk about the real problems of Italy. Surely lawsuits and counterclaims will start, but the result will mostly be a cloud of dust.

The Italian gironals are treating the affair as a tragedy, and so is the opposition, when, in fact, it is no more than a little off-the-wall comedy in the opeca of “Queer” and “Woke.”